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Living Legend
Words have power. Through words, a storyteller can shape a mind. Through a narrative, a storyteller can change the world. Some soulknives take these truths and weaponize them, empowering themselves with the strength of the heroes of old, the subtlety of cunning rogues, and the hidden secrets of wizened mages. The warriors known as living legends hold these ideals in their minds and uses their bodies as a vessel for the powerful words of the past. Through their psionic power, they can bring reality to deeds that may have originated as mere fiction. 'Class Skills: '''A living legend gains Knowledge (all), Linguistics, and Perform as class skills. '''Scholar (Ex): '''A living legend uses his Intelligence instead of his Wisdom for any soulknife ability he gains, such as blade skills that rely on Wisdom for determining save DC. He also uses his Intelligence instead of his Wisdom for abilities gained from prestige classes that advance his mind blade. '''Protagonist (Su): '''At 1st level, a living legend gains the ability to channel concepts through himself—sometimes echoes of souls from ages past, sometimes tales that have taken on lives of their own—and use them as a “template” for his psionic power. Each day, a living legend can meditate to accept these tales by undergoing a ritual called a seance, preparing his body and soul to take on the role of a character or archetype. A seance takes 1 hour to perform, and requires the living legend concentrate fully on his preparations; reading and recalling, meditating on a trinket or relic, or even going through combat drills or motions from more active tales. At the end of a seance, the living legend takes on roles given to him by his knowledge and power, inviting a role to take form within his mind. He chooses two of the seven legendary roles (described here) to inhabit him for the day. Although each role has a favored location or tale to be drawn out of, the living legend can find his roles wherever he looks if he can conceive of possible conceptual ties between them. He remains playing his roles for 24 hours or until he expels them as a full-round action. A living legend can only hold two roles in a given day; once he has completed a seance, he cannot start another one until the next day. At any given time, the living legend has an active role and a passive role. He can switch which is which as a swift action. Regardless of whether or not a role is active or passive, the living legend falls under its influence, is beholden to one of its taboos (chosen when he completes his seance), and gains the benefits of its narrative. In addition, he gains the powers of his active role. He gains access to a role’s lesser power at 1st level, its intermediate power at 4th level, its greater power at 10th level, and its supreme power at 16th level. If the living legend wishes, he may choose to have one or both of his roles not influence his behavior when he completes a seance. If he does so, he does not gain the benefit of those roles’ narratives. He must still choose a taboo as normal. The living legend is not magically prevented from breaking his taboos, but if he breaks a taboo for any reason, he takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls, damage rolls, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws for 1 hour. This penalty is not cumulative; if the living legend violates the taboo again while taking the penalty, the duration of the penalty extends to one hour from the most recent violation. If he breaks a given role’s taboo three times while it inhabits him, it leaves him (his other role becomes active if it was previously passive) and he loses the ability to play that role for one week. This ability replaces psychic strike and the blade skills gained at 4th, 10th, 16th levels. '''Storied Blade (Su): '''Unlike a normal soulknife, a living legend’s mind blade changes its form based on what roles he is playing with his protagonist class feature, starting with the form of his active role’s mind blade. Each role has its unique mind blade listed in its individual description. Unless otherwise noted, these mind blades function as a normal soulknife’s mind blade, including the ability to choose its handedness and damage type. For example, a living legend could materialize the Sacred Relic of the Hierophant as a two-handed weapon, a one-handed weapon, or even two separate light weapons. However, if he was wielding the Mystic Might of the Archmage or Thousand Blades of the Champion, he could only use them in the ways listed in their individual descriptions, because they have special rules for their use. The soulknife has access to both of his current roles' mind blades, regardless of which is his active role. This ability replaces form mind blade, and otherwise functions as the soulknife’s form mind blade class feature. '''Shape Mind Blade (Su): '''As a full-round action, the living legend can reshape his mind blade to one of his current roles’ mind blades. Alternatively, when he changes his active role, he can have his mind blade automatically reshape itself to that role’s mind blade. In addition, the living legend can reassign the ability or abilities he has added to his roles’ mind blades with his enhanced mind blade class feature when he completes a seance. After doing so, the mind blades materialize with the new ability or abilities selected by the living legend. This ability alters shape mind blade. '''Protagonist’s Portrayal (Su): '''When inviting roles to fill his mind, the living legend is at least in part playing a character, and with that character comes the knowledge needed to accurately portray it. Starting at 1st level, a living legend gains the benefit of one of the following feats, depending on his active role. He need not meet the prerequisites for these feats. * ''Archmage: Precise Shot. * Champion: Power Attack. * Guardian: Combat Reflexes (using the higher of the living legend's Dexterity and Intelligence to determine the number of additional attacks of opportunity he can make). * Hierophant: Enforcer. * Marshal: Lookout. * Overmind: Psionic Weapon. * Trickster: Dirty Fighting. This class feature counts as each of these feats for the purposes of prerequisites and requirements, although he only gains the benefit of feats and classes he used this ability to qualify for while he has is playing the role in question. If the living legend already has one of these feats, he may choose another feat to gain the benefit of while the appropriate role is his active role. This feat must be the same type as the feat it replaces (for example, if the living legend is replacing Power Attack, he must choose a combat feat), and the living legend must meet its other prerequisites as normal. This choice is made for each of his roles when he completes his seance, and cannot be changed until he completes another seance. The feats granted by this ability can be found in the Reference Materials section on page 83. This ability replaces the bonus feat gained at 1st level. 'Blade Skills: '''A living legend cannot choose the Alter Blade, Discipline Blade Shapes, Empowered Fist, Emulate Melee Weapon, Emulate Ranged Weapon, Mind Daggers, Telekinetic Blade, or Telekinetic Bolt blade skills. Blade skills that change the form of his mind blade instead apply their effects to his storied sword without changing how the weapon functions. For example, a living legend with the Mindflayer blade skill would still gain the ability to expend his psionic focus for an added effect on an attack, but would not transform his mind blade into a whip. This ability alters blade skills, but does not cause the living legend archetype to be incompatible with other archetypes that alter the blade skills class feature. '''Legendary Stunts: '''A living legend gains a number of unique blade skills, which may be selected any time the he would gain a blade skill. Unlike other blade skills, the living legend only gains the benefits of these abilities while he has roles inhabiting him; if he has not completed a seance or expels his roles, he loses access to these abilities. However, while they are tied to individual roles, he can use them regardless of which roles he has. A living legend must be at least 6th level to select any of these blade skills. This ability does not cause the living legend archetype to be incompatible with other archetypes that alter the blade skills class feature. ''Defender’s Oath (Su): As a swift action, the living legend can lay a powerful psionic mark on an opponent he can see. As long as he is psionically focused, that creature takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls for attacks that do not target the living legend, as well as an equal penalty to their saving throw DCs for any attacks and abilities that do not target him or otherwise include him in their effect (such as area spells). These penalties increase by –1 at 10th level and every five levels thereafter. In addition, while the living legend’s active role is the guardian, he deals additional damage equal to 1/2 his living legend level on a successful attack with his mind blade against an opponent marked with this ability. He can only have one such opponent marked at a time, although he can move his mark to another target as a swift action. A marked opponent remains marked for as long as the living legend can see them and one minute thereafter. High Wizard’s Fury (Su): As a standard action, the living legend can expend his psionic focus to detonate his mind blade, scattering it as a cone of fragmented mental energy. This cone has a range of 5 feet per 2 living legend levels and deals 1d6 points of piercing and slashing damage per living legend level to each creature caught within its area. A successful Reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 the living legend’s class level + the living legend’s Intelligence modifier) halves the damage. Damage from this ability is subject to damage reduction, although it counts as an attack with the living legend’s mind blade for the purposes of overcoming it. If the living legend’s active role is the archmage, he can choose to deal damage of his active energy type instead (in which case it is not subject to damage reduction, but is affected by energy resistance and immunity as normal). Mark of the Heretic (Su): As a standard action, the living legend can expend his psionic focus and make a single attack with his mind blade. If it hits, it deals weapon damage as normal plus additional damage equal to the living legend’s class level and a painful brand sears itself onto the target’s face. The exact shape of the brand is up to the living legend, but any creature bearing it takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls, damage rolls, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws for 1 hour. The brand stays visible for 1 hour, after which it will disappear if the target receives magical healing of any sort. Once per day, if the living legend’s active role is the hierophant, he may choose to make both the brand and the penalty permanent until the target receives a remove curse ''spell or similar effect (healing does not remove the brand). ''Now You See Me (Su): While the living legend is psionically focused, he can hide himself from view in the open without anything to actually hide behind as long as he is within 10 feet of some sort of shadow. He cannot, however, hide in his own shadow. In addition, while the living legend’s active role is the trickster and he is psionically focused, he can use the Stealth skill even while being observed. Paint the Target (Su): The living legend can expend his psionic focus as a free action when he hits an opponent with his mind blade to place a mark on them that only allies can see. The mark lasts for a number of rounds equal to the living legend’s Intelligence modifier. The next time another ally attacks that creature, they can trigger the mark as a free action. If they do, the mark erupts in a small cascade of psionic energy, empowering their strike and allowing it to be resolved against the target’s touch AC. In addition, while the living legend’s active role is the marshal, the mark also casts light as a torch. Opponents of the living legend cannot see this light, and the marked creature may be unable to use Stealth to hide from the living legend and his allies because of the light. Secret Techniques (Su): When the living legend completes a seance, he chooses a combat feat he meets the prerequisites for and gains the benefit of that feat while he remains inhabited by his roles. In addition, if one of his roles is the champion, the living legend can change the feat selected by performing weapon drills for ten minutes. If a combat feat has a daily use limitation (such as Stunning Fist) or grants a resource (such as Extra Ki), any uses of that feat or its resource count towards that feat's limit, even if the living legend changes the feat and regains it later. Tap Potential (Ps): ''The living legend gains a single power of up to 2nd level from the psion/wilder power list as a psi-like ability, with a manifester level equal to his living legend level. At 10th level, he gains a power of up to 3rd level, and at 15th level he gains a power of up to 4th level. He can use each of these psi-like abilities once per day. In addition, while the living legend’s active role is the overmind, he increases his manifester level with these psi-like abilities by his mind blade’s enhancement bonus. The living legend uses his Intelligence to determine the save DCs of these psi-like abilities. '''Enhanced Mind Blade (Su): '''When a living legend chooses how he enhances his mind blade, each of his unique mind blades can be given their own combinations of enhancement bonuses and weapon special abilities. These abilities must be able to be applied to the mind blade in question (for example, Mystic Might of the Archmage is a projectile weapon, so it would not be allowed melee-only weapon special abilities), and this ability otherwise functions as the normal soulknife’s enhanced mind blade class feature, including the list of special abilities the living legend can draw from and the maximum enhancement bonus he can assign to his mind blades. This ability alters enhanced mind blade. '''Quick-Change (Su): '''At 13th level, the living legend can more fluidly control his powers and the role he weaves. The living legend can switch his active role and passive roles as a free action a number of times per day equal to his Intelligence modifier (minimum 1). He can use this ability even if it isn’t his turn. '''Written Into History (Su): '''At 20th level, a living legend truly lives up to his name. He has made his mark on the world, and proves difficult to remove from it so long as his story remains told. If the living legend dies, his soul cannot be trapped or otherwise bound. In addition, as long as a spellcaster knows of the living legend’s story and deeds, they can bring him back to life with ''raise dead, resurrection, true resurrection, or similar effects without needing expensive material components, his intact corpse, or a piece of his body. He does not gain negative levels when returned to life in this way. This ability replaces mind blade mastery. Category:Source: Psionics Augmented: Occult